Searchlights are frequently used on search and rescue vehicles including search and rescue aircraft, such as helicopters, to illuminate areas of interest to the aircraft pilot and/or crew. There are many searchlight designs, including halogen/incandescent tungsten filament designs. Within the weight and space limitations of an aircraft, these designs will often include multiple illumination sources adjacent a reflector and disposed within a housing covered with a glass or plastic lens.
An application where high power density light emitting diodes (LEDs) might provide a good design solution is searchlights. LED technology permits ever brighter constructions than existing incandescent technologies. Furthermore, the power or light output of an LED may be increased by increasing the die size. This allows still brighter LED arrays with fewer LED elements. Increasing die size to increase light output, however, increases the power density of the LED, which also consolidates heat generation and complicates cooling requirements.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a searchlight construction using LEDs as a light source with comparable or superior light emitting capability to halogen/incandescent tungsten filament designs, and efficient cooling in all operating environments. Other desirable features and characteristics of the herein described embodiments will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.